Education for Artisans and Consumers: A Path to Sustainability

Judy Frater

Education is almost always the sustainable answer to deep-rooted problems.  As the climate crisis looms, over-production and over-consumption contribute to accumulation of waste that critically burdens the environment. A radical shift of focus from quantity to quality is needed to slow the global trajectory toward self-destruction and begin sustainable practices. Value is at the heart of sustainability; people preserve what they cherish. A return to buying better and consuming less can be cultivated by value-centered education.

 

Hand craft has the potential to lead a movement toward economic, social and cultural as well as environmental sustainability. Traditional hand craft processes use minimal to no fossil fuel energy and produce little to no wastage. Equally important, traditional artisans created for durability and personal meaning.

 

But in India today, sustainable hand craft livelihoods are threatened by undervaluation. Industrialization of craft has led to over-production, overuse of natural resources, and waste.  The push to make craft “affordable” has meant that to maintain even modest livelihoods, artisans must produce in quantity. The fundamental characteristic of hand craft is that it is made by people.  There is a human limitation to scale. Each year artisans leave craft because it does not offer adequate income or recognition.  Therefore, for craft to remain viable for artisans, it cannot be made cheaper; rather, it must be made more valuable. 

 

A radical shift to focus on values requires cultural adjustment, and thus coordinated education of producers and consumers. My efforts toward this end began with education for artisans of Kutch district in Gujarat. Concerned that commercialization was devaluing craft for the artisans who made it and devaluing artisans themselves, in 2005 I began a year-long program in design education for traditional artisans.  The course teaches artisans to recognize and value their cultural heritage and to innovate within its parameters as they define them to reach contemporary markets. A key objective of the educational programs is to encourage individual expression as a path to success alternative to scaled up production. By learning to innovate within traditions, artisans can ensure integrity of cultural heritage. By connecting to contemporary markets, they can gain recognition as well as income.

 

The experience of 15 years of education for artisans has shown that graduates of the program have clearly increased their incomes as well as their social standing. They have found markets in established companies, with designers, and on online platforms.  They have participated in international as well as domestic events. They have received national and international awards and gained recognition in their communities.  Graduates have realized several sustainable development goals: no poverty nor hunger, good health and well-being, quality- appropriate- education, decent work and economic growth, and innovation. They are aware of environmental issues and prefer ecologically sustainable practices.  And they have built a community of artisan designers.

 

Because craft traditions are human powered, continuation rests on the next generation of artisans. The most important impact of design education for artisans of Kutch is the return of the next generation from urban jobs and industries to craft as an excellent option for livelihood, rather than a last resort.

Another important outcome of the program is diversification of craft traditions.  In 15 years, all graduates have developed clearly recognizable individual styles within their shared traditions, which has expanded markets and extended economic benefits to more individuals. Artisan students love to innovate, and they do so successfully when they know the consumers for whom they are creating.

 

The domestic market offers a sustainable livelihood to artisans.  They can reach it without need for intervention, observe its workings, and learn to innovate appropriately. Yet, despite economic success artisan designers struggle with the contemporary markets to which they have access.

 

Addressing this challenge begins with understanding craft consumers, and illuminates the fact that sustainable practices require education in values for consumers as well. Crafts Council of England studies in 2010 and 2020 demonstrate that in the UK, ethical consumerism, wellness, and mindfulness are important to craft buyers. People consume craft seeking authenticity, experiences, and ethical and sustainable creation. They choose craft because of its meaning and human connection. Increasingly, motivations for buying craft are more maker-focused.  In short, craft consumers want cultural consumption. They value personal connection and individual expression.

 

The sustainable way to expand the market for craft is not to scale production and consumption, but to educate more people to buy better and consume less. Education of the domestic market in India must bring into focus values of ethical consumerism and mindfulness: concern for the environment and humane working conditions, appreciation of cultural heritage, and value for durability of products and personal connection.

 

The traditional market for hand craft in India has elements to which we can look to change patterns of consumption. Generations ago, artisans interfaced with traditional clients whom they intimately knew. They focused on creating the best, longest-lasting product for a known and respected user. Clients shared artisans’ standards of evaluation and could see fine variations in how each individual artisan executed a woven dhablo or printed ajrakh. Traditionally, personal recognition and appreciation were exchanged along with payment.

 

Efforts toward a sustainable craft ecosystem must now focus on a two-pronged education that fosters both excellence and independence of artisans, and cultivates consumer cognizance of the values of craft.  In a sustainable craft ecosystem, makers and users must share values centered in cultural heritage, individual interpretation, and durability, and artisans must have direct access to their end users.

 

The role of the intermediary in this ecosystem is as facilitator and educator. Intermediaries can educate and guide artisans, rather than intercept direct access to clients, and educate consumers to understand the value of craft in terms of issues of environmental, economic, social, and cultural sustainability. The intermediary can reimagine traditional systems of distribution and re-value the personal connection of craft in order to bring genuine sustainability to craft traditions and to the planet.

This article was published by the Center for Environment Education and the Government of India in the book Sustainability in the Handlooms of India

References

Chatterjee, A. (2007), Kala Raksha Vidhyalaya: An Evaluation Report. Sumrasar: Kala Raksha Trust.

 

Frater, J. and Hawley, J. (2021). ‘Honoring Artisanship over Skilled Labor: The Solution to Sustaining Indian Handloom,’ in Gardetti, M. and Muthu, S. (eds.) Sustainability, Culture and Handloom. New York: Springer

 

Frater, J. (2019). ‘Education for Artisans: Beginning a Sustainable Future for Craft Traditions,’ in Mignosa, A. and Kotipalli, P. (eds.) A Cultural Economic Analysis of Craft. London: Palgrave.

 

Klamer, A. (2012). ‘Crafting Culture: The Importance of Craftsmanship for the World of the Arts and the Economy at Large.’ Rotterdam: Erasmus University.

 

McIntyre, M. H. (2010). ‘Consuming Craft: The Contemporary Craft Market in a Changing Economy.’ London: Crafts Council.

 

McIntyre, M. H. (2020) ‘The Market for Craft.’  London: The Crafts Council of England and Partners.

 

Tyabji, L. (2019) ‘Keynote address,’ 3-5 October 2019 5^th International Textiles and Costume Congress, Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda.

 

Judy Frater discusses Ajrakh tradition and the innovations made for the Connecting for India exhibition Rehnuma.

 

In 2012, the Kala Raksha Vidhyalaya Convocation was sponsored by Tata Power, Adani group and the K.J.Somaiya Trust. Today, Tata and Adani have their own craft CSR projects. The K.J. Somaiya Gujarat Trust now operates the design education program as Somaiya Kala Vidya. What happened between 2012 and now?

I have outlined key issues of craft from the ground level perspective: the essence of craft is handmade; pervasive devaluing of hand work challenges maker communities; to sustain a living tradition, artisans must directly access better markets. My solution was design education for artisans, promoting independence. The challenge was that quality education costs more than artisans can afford. The program needed funding.

Because craft has been positioned as inferior manufacturing in need of intervention to survive it was an easy focus for CSR projects, and initially Kala Raksha Vidhyalaya received much needed CSR support.

But as CSR craft projects proliferated, corporates found it more beneficial to keep CSR projects inhouse than to support existing projects. They opted for quick fix intervention: “helping” connect artisans to markets, and set up new companies to market craft.

Today in Kutch, CSR projects vie for weavers and dyers to produce for their brands. The net result is regressive. Rarely are CSR products designed by the artisans who make them; even more rarely are artisans named. The power differential between artisans and companies is even greater than that between artisans and money lender master artisans. Artisans become daily wage workers like those in the industry that produced the excess capital that must be invested in CSR.

Independent artisan designers now compete with corporate brands to employ artisans to grow their enterprises, and to sell small-scale creation at prices competitive with production craft. The CSR message is size = power, and individual artisans are irrelevant.

Gandhi’s concept of companies responsible to the society from which they derive resources and income had merit. But As Annapurna pointed out, the concept of CSR has been manipulated to benefit companies rather than address inequalities of ownership.

Corporates inevitably think from an industrial/business perspective. Sustainability of hand craft traditions rests on understanding craft as cultural heritage, not merely livelihood. Preservation rests on value. Artisans don’t need help. They need veneration.

Photo Credit: Ketan Pomal, LM Studio, Bhuj

Today’s craft is created for urban markets. In many regions of India, artisans don’t have direct access to those markets. They are beholden to “Master Artisans” for whom they do job work and who lend them money they won’t repay in their lifetimes, preventing them from leaving their workshops.

Enabling direct market access is a key focus of the design curriculum at SKV. In Market Orientation, the third module of the year-long course, artisan students explore market segments. Pictured, Amarbhai, a bandhani artisan student, and Shakilbhai, an Ajrakh print student and Kisanbhai, a weaver student study the presentation and pricing of hand-crafted products similar to those that they create, to gain an understanding of market segments and to conjecture about how their work can be valued. Students also visit homes in Ahmedabad to learn more about people who might purchase their work- contemporary end users. Through the year, they learn to make theme-based, market-oriented collections and work very hard to create unique new looks, which they launch in a show in Ahmedabad.

Yet, after the course when it’s time to go to an exhibition in Delhi, Mumbai, etc., the collection is left behind and “regular” work is brought. “This is what the market wants,” they say. The markets to which they have direct access are pop-up exhibitions and medium level businesses. This segment- like the original local clients- wants what it already knows.

For artisans, the urban market remains distant. In the local ecosystem men deemed even the little unknown of hereditary clients risky. Add the perceived practicalities of business and the push to scale up, and the risks pre-empt innovation.

Degrees of unknown can be managed by experience. As artisan designers gain experience and make the market more familiar, they can begin to utilize creativity to gain recognition as well as increased income.

But the process is slow. And we live in a fast world governed by marketing. Hard sell marketing leaves little space for exploration and can make us buy what we don’t really want before we realize it. Marketing can become a runaway train when it eclipses what is marketed. And marketers of craft often omit names and faces of artisans, reinforcing the idea of hands without heads –or curiosities needing help, like the example from the G20 bazaar.

So, the question is how to leverage creative capacity honestly to negotiate value in higher levels of the market?

Photos by LOkesh Ghai, who taught the course in 2020

 

Tausifbhai presents his work to family and professional juries during the “Merchandising, Presentation” module of the Somaiya Kala Vidya design course, 2019.  Presentation includes an explanation of the collection theme, concept development, and specific innovations the student did, in order to illuminate the thought embedded in the work as well as technical innovations- and create value for the whole of the work: concept and creation. 

 

I have spent the last week toiling over Folk Art Market (IFAM) applications. The applicants worked harder, creating beautiful new collections. My role is to enhance their work through presentation. Craft is presented in many ways.  Fabindia proclaims that imperfections are inherent. Bandhej glosses over handmade to focus on appeal. Good Earth presents products as beautiful and hand crafted.

 

Yet, in all cases, while designers are celebrated, artisans remain nameless.  “How can we promote them?” I am told.  “No one knows their names.”

 

How to position craft holistically, as the concept and creation of an individual?

In India, artisans presenting their work in exhibitions is seen as an opportunity to bargain. Artisan Designer Khalidbhai Usman Khatri is so fed up that he stopped going to exhibitions. 

 

IFAM, in Santa Fe, offers a different model, in which artists presenting their own work adds value. Yet, there is the lingering tone of: Buy this folk art to help /support the artisans and, increasingly, high value craft is difficult to sell.  “How many collectors are there?” I am asked. I try to present Tausifbhai, who studied date palms and celebrated them in his handprints, in the IFAM electronic straitjacket, squeezing the soul of his work into the title. The rest is just material, size and price.

 

But at the Santa Fe Indian Market, Native American artists earn name recognition and respectable prices.  And there seem to be plenty of collectors.

In 2016, when Hasambhai, a potter from Kutch, met Robert Tenorio in Kewa Pueblo, he was astounded at the prices his ceramics commanded.  But, Robert laughed, he didn’t start there; he started at $5.

 

How can an artisan gain value?  The final module of SKV’s year-long design course is “Merchandising, Presentation.”  The rationale is that artisans can gain full value for their designs only if they present them effectively. Graduates have learned to use photography and the power of social media to bypass prejudice. “I can sell unique work online, and no one bargains for cheaper prices,” Khalidbhai says.

 

Artisans build their names– and in turn collectors, by consciously presenting collectible work.